A birth injury lawsuit has been filed against a doctor and two midwives in Georgia, as well as the medical centers they worked for, alleging a child born there suffered permanent disabilities.

In this medical malpractice birth injury lawsuit, a mother has alleged that negligence during a difficult labor led to permanent nerve damage for her child when she gave birth in 2012. Allegedly, her new daughter experienced damage to her brachial plexus nerve, which the birth injury lawsuit alleges was primarily caused by negligence from medical professionals.

A brachial plexus injury is a complicated birth injury. The brachial plexus is a cluster of nerves in the shoulder that control and receive signals from the arm. Damage to the brachial plexus varies, since it includes a number of nerves with different functions in the arm and brain. Symptoms of a brachial plexus injury can include numbness, paralysis, pain, and tremors, and tingling in the affected arm and shoulder.

One of the major causes of brachial plexus injury is a type of birth injury called shoulder dystocia. In this birth injury, a baby’s shoulders get stuck during delivery. Doctors may have to resort to risky maneuvers that could result in damage to the brachial plexus. This birth injury lawsuit alleges that doctors ignored risk factors for shoulder dystoncia, leading to a brachial plexus injury in the child that allegedly caused permanent disabilities.

Birth Injury Medical Malpractice Litigation

This birth injury lawsuit claims that the doctors involved with the baby’s delivery failed to recognize serious potential problems that contributed to the shoulder dystoncia and ultimately to the brachial plexus injury the child experienced. First, the mother had delivered babies with shoulder dystoncia twice before—and previous shoulder dystoncia is a major risk factor for recurrence. The birth injury lawsuit holds that it was negligent not to recommend a C-section for a mother at high-risk for shoulder dystoncia.

The birth injury lawsuit also alleges that there was further negligence that contributed to the birth injuries that ultimately led to a severe brachial plexus injury. In the text of the birth injury lawsuit, it is stated that doctors dosed the mother with Pitocin and Cervidil in order to induce labor. Induced labor is another major risk factor for shoulder dystonica, and the birth injury lawsuit holds that it was irresponsible to have an induced vaginal birth with all of these risk factors for a brachial plexus injury.

This birth injury lawsuit seeks to recoup the cost of medical care, the cost of lost wages, legal fees and other costs that allegedly stem from the brachial plexus injury. Birth injury lawsuit like this one typically allege that a doctor’s negligence or departure from the standard of care leave a child vulnerable to birth complications like brachial plexus injury.